happiness has to be fought for

the doctors left five children behind at al-rantisi (also known as al-nasr) hospital because it was being targeted by the IDF. the hrw report says it was targeted by airstrikes—testimony from a nurse who left there says they were forced to leave the babies under shelling and also rounds of live ammunition by the army to evacuate the hospital. there was also testimony that at least one parent of one of the children left behind was shot and left at the entrance of the hospital

this was a testimony from one of a doctors without borders nurse after they were forced to evacuate.

i distinctly remember another written testimony by a doctor stating that they had left the five children behind at the ICU, and that they had informed the israeli army and asked for them to be evacuated but were specifically asking the red cross to intervene. there is also video testimony of a doctor asking the red cross to intervene before the hospital was evacuated.

one doctor explicitly stated that they had rehooked a child to one of the remaining battery-powered machines before leaving.

this was november 10th.

on november 28th, during the ceasefire, families were finally able to go back to north gaza and get into the hospital, only to discover that the five children left behind had been left to die and were found decomposed in their beds.

from AFP:

Gaza health ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra told AFP that Israeli soldiers had blocked access to the intensive care unit at Al-Nasr paediatric facility, and doctors were finally "able to get into the ward on Tuesday night". There, Qudra said, "the occupation (Israeli) forces left five premature babies" who were found "partly decomposed". "The soldiers forbade the families from going near" the newborns before Tuesday, he said.

there's been an outpouring of anger at the red cross, which was the only international entity capable of intervening. instead, the red cross claimed it was not responsible for evacuating the hospital. they have not provided any assistance to thousands of palestinians in north gaza who were asking for help. the red cross released this statement:

However, their statement in Arabic was far worse, translated here:

"Our teams did not make any commitment to participate in these processes" essentially means the red cross (the only entity capable of evacuating a hospital the israeli military had beseiged) had simply abdicated its duties.

for comparison, because of the public outrage at al-shifa where 39 NICU babies were also beseiged by the israeli military, the red cross was involved in transporting the remaining babies to egypt after eight had already died. the red cross is capable of it, they just didn't care.

worth noting that since then israel has left al-shifa after filming some humiliating propaganda videos proving there was no "hamas headquarters" at the hospital and left al-nasr after finding nothing as well. this is not because the idf failed to find hamas, it's because the idf had succeeeded in its primary goal to make gaza unlivable and prevent palestinians from being able to access healthcare. finding hamas was never a real goal, and anyone who repeats this lie is either an idiot or a propagandist.

destroying a hospital and evacuating patients and medical staff is already a war crime. but leaving five children to slowly die alone of suffocation in a hospital bed and then leaving their dead bodies to decompose for over two weeks is unforgivable. this is what occupation does, what israel does. a war crime committed first by soldiers carrying arms, and then completed by international aid organizations that abandon palestinians in their time of need. it is not possible without international complicity allowing israel to continue committing unspeakable horrors against palestinians with impunity.

My lovely, wonderful friend Swin (aka tumblr user @combaticon) was deployed as a volunteer medic to a Gaza hospital on the 9th.

When the bloodshed started, she heard they needed extra hands in Gaza, she spoke Arabic and had the training, and she went.

I’ve been in contact with her throughout. She’s so incredibly brave it takes my breath away. My heart bleeds for these children she’s taking care of and how resilient they are is… astonishing.

Swin and these poor people have been under siege for so long, and they’re in desperate need of critical supplies. They have to filter water through their clothes, and it’s getting dangerously cold. Foods finally been getting through, but there’s not enough blankets and jackets to go around and there’s no fuel for the generators.

Their comrades in the West Bank have been completely pushed out by settler thugs. It’s incredibly unsafe to even be doing humanitarian work for Palestinians. Remember this the next time a Zionist tells you they’re doing this to ‘feel safe’. The IOF is arming lynch mobs.

On a personal note, this has been the most gut-wrenching week of my life. Every day when I wake up without a text from her I feel so much fear. I fight back the grief but I don’t know how to help or what to do. It’s terrifying.

Swin has asked for nothing, absolutely nothing other than something it can show the people around it to make them feel like they’re not going to be abandoned. To make sure they’re not forgotten in some pit praying Rafah opens before Israel decides to slaughter them all.

Today was a bad day. She’s alive but beyond worrying about her privacy now; she’s asked me to share this and to beg that we not lose steam and forget about them. Please share this, and please keep being fucking annoying and loud and digging your heels in with fury because we cannot let these people die silently.

[Times of Gaza] [QUD network] [Eye on Palestine]

[link to GCC registration website as the link in this picture is broken]

I have a brief update; I was messaging Swin last night at around 1:30am (8:30 Gaza time) when the house she and a friend were taking shelter in was shelled by Israeli jets.

They are both alive, thank god, but burned, bloody and freezing cold. There are 16 confirmed dead, including children.

Swin was evacuated this morning through Rafah along with her friend and a lot of children/injured. She was telling me last night that a man took off his shirt in the middle of the freezing rain to replace her destroyed hijab. The compassion and generosity of the Palestinians in times like this is so staggering. People there have nothing, but what they do have is given away to those in need.

I am so angry. This was a SAFE ZONE. Swin told me they didn’t stop shelling ambulances trying to get people to safety for over an hour.

Bombing a civilian home, a place they said was safe, HOURS before the crossing opened is just… such a sick and cruel thing to do.

Swin says to keep fighting, and keep putting pressure on those who feed and arm the tyrants in Israel.

Thank you once again to all of Swins friends and the strangers who have reached out to send their love.

Rescued hostages who may contradict the narrative are a potential embarrassment.